~ Someone in need. Please read ~

This post was taken from Sharon's blog.
A Kidney Donor Is Needed

I have a friend, Teresa Gunn, who is in her early 40's who has been on the kidney transplant list for more than two years. She has been on home dialysis four times a day since November. Each treatment can take up to two hours at a time which doesn't provide her much free time to leave the house. Thankfully, she will soon be set up on a nighttime schedule where she is hooked up for 9 hours while sleeping at night and be free during the daytime.

She has Fanconi Syndrome which can be read about here. It is by the Grace of God that she is still here with us. She is a Christian who has a great faith in God and a very loving family and church family who help her during trying times. She is not married and has no children, but loves the children in our church and use to work with them when she was able. She always seems to have a twinkle in her eye and loves people. She has always been willing to help anyone that is in need, whether it be driving them somewhere, sitting with someone sick at home or in a hospital (which she has done for us), helping to serve food at church socials, working at the local soup kitchen, and many more services that I don't even know about. She is a true heart servant. You couldn't ask for a more devoted person to be a friend. Whether she realizes it or not, God has used her greatly.

She has had the opportunity twice for a transplant from living donors willing to give her a kidney, but both times the health of the donors prevented the transplant. Now, I have to admit that even thinking about donating can be scary. You think, "What if I donate one and then something happens to my other kidney?" "What if something unusual happens during the surgery to remove my kidney?" "What if she gets my kidney and it fails to work for her?" You know why you would think these things? Because I have, and we're all human. I began thinking that maybe I should ask more detailed questions about being a donor, and so I did.
Here is what I have learned regarding Teresa's case:



Acceptable organ donors from the ages of 18-60
All costs related to the donation of organs and tissues are paid for by the donor program
You must have the same blood type, which in Teresa's case, is a rare O negative
Besides blood matching, there are tests for tissue matching as well.
They cannot accept you if you have diabetes or high blood pressure, or any other significant health problems.
Your kidneys will be tested to be sure that your remaining kidney will function at a certain percentage.
There are plenty of precautions taken to ensure the health of the donor as well as the recipient.

I have been praying for Teresa for a long time now and not giving up hope. I have a peace deep down inside that she is going to be fine. I'm slow, but it occured to me the other day when I saw an article in our local paper about her that I could post about it on my little corner of the web.

Since she has such a rare blood type of O negative, it narrows the field of potential donors to about 7 percent of the population. I guess this is what really hit me, but we all know that God is bigger than any problem we have and He can do anything!

If you or someone you know has this blood type, I ask that you please pray about the possibility of becoming a donor for Teresa. Emory Hospital in Atlanta, GA has a phone line for potential donors. If you would like to be considered as a potential kidney donor for Teresa Gunn, call (404) 712-4857 and follow instructions. You may also call the Gunn family at (706) 778-8935.

For more information, go to the National Kidney Foundation.

Please consider this:

What if she were your daughter, sister, or mother?

Blessings, Sharon